The present invention relates to a garden and landscaping product which solves several common problems encountered in the care of plants. Furthermore, the present invention is directed to a garden and landscaping product which may be inexpensively produced, and easily stored.
When home gardeners or landscapers place a plant in the ground, unless there is a history of prior problems with the location and type of plant, a hole is typically dug into the ground and the plant is placed therein with the backfill being used to form a berm around the drip line of the plant so that overhead water is retained in a pool around the base of the plant where it can trickle to the root system. Often it is not until after the plant has been well established in the ground that certain problems arise. It is then inconvenient and expensive to uproot the plant to transfer to a different site or to install underground devices which may address the problems.
One of the problems which may arise subsequent to the establishment of a plant is attack of the root system, or of the insects which inhabit the root system, by underground rodents such as gophers and moles. Since these rodents, particularly moles, usually only travel laterally a few inches underground, it is often a sufficient protection of the plant to insert a barrier extending to a depth below which the moles typically travel.
Another problem which typically arises is that the dirt berm erodes and overhead watering becomes less effective since water drains away from the site above the root system of the plant.
Another problem which frequently arises is the attack of the plants by slugs and snails. This problem is typically addressed by surrounding the plant with an area of slug and snail bait which, when coming in contact with the slug or snails, poisons them.
An ongoing problem with many plants is the requirement for periodic fertilization which can be done with chemical fertilizers in the form of powders, pellets or sticks which can be driven into the ground. The fertilizer sticks are advantageous because they cannot be washed away by rain and because of their density and concentration the fertilizing effect is more long-lasting than a powder or pellet.
Finally, even in acute cases of attack by underground rodents such as gophers, there is usually no alternative other than to replant the plants in raised beds with an underground protection from the gophers at the bottom of the beds, thus requiring substantial visual alteration of the landscaping, not to mention the time and expense of modifying the landscaping. To the average homeowner, minimal time and expense dedicated to such landscaping modifications or maintenance, thus any effective remedy must be relatively simple to install and relatively inexpensive.
It is thus desirable to provide a means for addressing all of the above problems in a manner which is both simple to use and which requires materials which are relatively inexpensive.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a plant watering and protecting device which can be readily installed to an established in-ground plant or installed initially when the plant is placed in the ground.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for installing a plant watering and protection device which can be easily installed, eliminating arduous and time-consuming trenching, implanting, fitting and compacting.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a plant watering and protecting device which can be easily shipped and stored and which can be stacked in a space-saving manner before use.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a plant watering and protecting device which is durable, rustproof, non-corrosive, weather-resistant and environmentally acceptable and reusable, if so desired.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following description or from the use of the invention to those of ordinary skill in the art.